News Media in Syria

Name: Ali Jarragh
Class: Ling 200
Date: 5/8/2015
Instructor: Jerrod Heiser
News Media in Syria
The Syrian Civil War or the Syrian Uprising is an ongoing civil war that started in March 2011 in the Middle-East country of Syria. The uprising started as a demonstration that was meant to protest against the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad and his government (Bodansky, 2013). It started as peaceful nationwide demonstrations that the government forces used excessive forces to combat. The Arab Spring protests in the Arabic countries started in Northern African nation of Libya and spread to other nations including Egypt. The spread of the protests against the governing regimes which were retrogressive marked the start of the Syrian Uprising when the demonstrations reached the Middle East. The peaceful demonstrations turned out to be violent revolution and aggravated to a civil war with other forces coming into frame. The civil war in Syria has been between the government forces and the opposition groups which their aim is overthrowing of President Bashar al-Assad’s government and his forces (Bodansky, 2012).
The war protests escalated after months of armed rebellion feting public protesters and the military which resulted in military groups and forces getting into the fore and offering support to both the government and the opposition (Bodansky, 2012). The opposition started with the formation of the Free Syrian Army which consisted of army officers opposed to the government. The Free Syrian Army is backed by the opposition on one side together with other forces including the Islamic Front which was formed in 2013 and the government forces backed up by Hezbollah. The entry of other militant groups including Islamic State has complicated the war situation and rebels have acquired large parts of Syria which has caused the war to escalate and involve many rebel groups.
The Syrian War has had very adverse effects to the Syrians, the neighboring countries and the whole world due to the humanitarian influence that the war has drawn. Foreign nations including the world’s super powers have taken a very vital interest in the Syrian Crisis. The Syrian government and the rebel groups that are involved in the war have drawn worldwide criticism from the due to the severe violations of human rights which have been witnessed. As of January 2015 the death toll from the war had surpassed 250,000 people most of them being civilians (Salama, 2012). The war has been an issue to the world due to the violations and massacres of civilians which the government forces and the pro-government rebels and the opposition militants have all been accused of. The media has not been left behind since many media stations in the world have taken an interest in reporting day-to-day proceedings of the war.
There exist no media freedom in Syria and many media platforms reporting from Syria experience lots of challenges which impacts on their reporting. There seems to be media platforms for all of the rebel groups operating in Syria together with the humanitarian support groups that have offered to work in the country (Shanahan, 2013). Media reporters have not been spared and many have ended up losing their lives exposing the rotting state of the ...